when asked what -- what do you say about all these people coming forward? he says they are lying and so that, i think, is going to be his defense going forward. >> different women that don't know each other are coming forward with these stories. thank you very much. i appreciate it. thank you for joining me at this hour. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. ♪ thank you, kate and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. fireworks on capitol hill. the homeland security secretary says there is an emergency, a chain of misery, she calls it, at the u.s.-mexico border. secretary nielsen says a border wall would help. democrats disagree. new cnn reporting that the president personally intervened to get his daughter ivanka a security clearance over the objection of his experts and top aides and democrats wrestle with the language of the resolution designed to rebuke anti-semitic remarks by congresswoman omar.

prejudice and tolerance that this time is across the aisle. >> so now the house of representatives seemed to distance itself from this member's remarks and will apparently send a vote to condemn anti-semitism for the second time in just a few weeks. well, i hope this time the message is clear. support for israel isn't about the benjamins, it's about the hearts and minds of the american people. >> back to that story in a moment, but we begin the hour on capitol hill where kirstjen nielsen is making the declaration, and warning that the things at the border are getting worse. secretary nielsen says new numbers from customs and border protection back the administration's case. people apprehended and crossing illegally or without proper papers in february. that's the highest encounters in

any february over the last 12 years. secretary nielsen says the united states is on track to encounter close to 1 million illegal migrants at the southern border this year and she says, yes, this is a true crisis and emergency. >> make no mistake. this chain of human misery is getting worse. yesterday we announced that the numbers of apprehension at the southern border have spiked again substantially. the capacity is already severely restrained and these cases will overwhelm the system entirely. this is not a manufactured crisis. this is truly an emergency. >> with me to share their reporting and insights, cnn's abby philip, paul cane with the washington post, michael shain with "the new york times" and barbara shore with the associated press. it's not an emergency of the president's making and the first time she's been before the democrat-controlled house. what are we learning that's new? >> well, look, part of what she

is stressing is the new numbers that were released actually yesterday which you talked about and there's no question that the numbers have increased and historically, the migrant crisis gets worse in the spring, and the likelihood is that the numbers will get greater. i think what is -- what the critics will say is that she's being dupe liss us to about not only the kind of crisis that it is. yes, there is a huge number of problems with the immigration system. there are backlogs in the courts and there are problems at the port which is can't accommodate the number of people. the question that the critics would say is the president and the president's policies and her policies doing things that make it actually worse by squeezing down the number of legal immigrants that they're willing to process through the ports of entry which are pushing illegal immigrants to other parts of the border and the idea of a wall which is intended to keep out people that are trying to come

into the country illicitly, and how do you deal with that and there are definitely immigration problems and the question is, is the president doing something to make it worse or something to make it better and that's the -- that's the debate that's going on. >> just that she's there, and she's fallen out of favor with the president. now she's on his side making the case that it is a true national emergency in the context of this, we know that the senate within days is going to join the house and saying no, mr. president, we disagree. >> right. she has won back the favor of president trump by how she's dealt with this wall debate over the last several months and how she's dealt with the border issue. the president feels at least at the moment that she's tough enough for him on this issue, but the problem for the president on the wall issue specifically persist, that this national emergency declaration is probably going to be sort of rejected by congress next week and he will likely veto it after that because there are republicans and democrats who don't feel that a national

emergency is the right tool to address the border problem and that the president ought not to take the power of the purse away from the lawmakers in order to build the wall, and i think what this hearing is going to demonstrate -- democrats are pressing her on a couple of issues. one being the family separation issue at the border and two, the nature of the problem. what is the nature of the problem? is it that family units are coming over the border and does the wall actually solve that? and this problem is acute at this very moment. does it really help to engage in this month's long process of fighting a battle over building physical barriers in a very small portion of the border or should there be other things done right at this moment to deal with the push factors that are bringing people to the border and also what happens once they're here? how do you deal with families? where do you keep them and how do you keep children, young children, from being separated from their parents in some cases

on a permanent basis and people are being deported without their children. >> she has the numbers to say it's an emergency. look at the encounters that will hit a million. the separation policies they view as callous and not well administered and it was impressed by the chairman of the committee for numbers there and secretary nielsen had this -- >> do you have a consensus of all of the children being detained in the various facilities both the ones at the border and others that are in partnership with hhs? do you know how many young people are detained? >> yes, ma'am. i do have that number in front of me. we have all of the numbers. >> would you provide that for me? >> yes. >> that's congressman sheila jackson-lee and the chairman of the committee pressed for similar issues of the numbers and the democrats are frustrated, you knew you were coming up here. you had the numbers to make your

case. you don't have the numbers for the things we want to talk about. >> absolutely. especially on family separation. this hearing is giving democrats multiple bites at the apple to remind voters that the family separation policy was unpopular, that secretary nielsen had lost favor with the president because she got up there and said incorrectly that it didn't exist. this is an interesting choice by them that i think is potentially backfiring in the court of public opinion because of the family separation issue. >> one of the issues as we go forward here is there is a true national emergency is here in washington, d.c., and the trump administration and the democrats want to talk about family separation and the president wants to talk about his wall. where is the adult conversation and where was it the last 25 years about how this is a complicated issue and the president is right. we need border security and the democrats are right and there are better policy for asylum seekers and guest visas and guest workers as well. >> the best week is when secretary nielsen appeared

yesterday before the senate republicans and the closed-door caulk us and they're trying to hold down the margins of this vote next week. they know that it's going to pass. abby's right. they've got at least 51 votes and the higher the number of defections among senate republicans the more divided that the whole party looks on this issue, on the president's declaration and they really want to try to show some form of unity on what's been a divisive issue for republicans. >> where does it go from here? is this testimony for each other and is there a possibility to agree on anything? >> i think there may have been a moment at some point in the last year or so where the parties might have come together. that moment is long past and both parties are looking more towards the election and how do they use it? it's almost certain that the declaration emergency will get tied up in the court. so that's a long-term issue that's not going to go away in a sense, but it won't be present for a decision, and that will leave both parties to figure out

how does this play best to their base and the president will demagogue and say that this crisis and the caravans are coming and the democrats will talk about separation and the public will have to figure out where they are. >> this is just the beginning. what's extraordinary is that we have two more years of what is going to be this kind of environment in which the president and his administration are going to resist coming before congress for this kind of oversight. these hearings are going to be just sort of people talking past each other on these issues and it's just a window into what we have coming down the pike. for a long time it seems that the white house was trying to resist having their cabinet heads come before congress in general. now they've figured out that they can do it, but her strategy here in only answering questions on the slate of issues she wants to talk about and stonewalling on other things is a window to what we can see coming down the pike. for the white house, the problem

of looking callous on family separation is a real one. they can talk about the crisis at the border, but if they seem cold and something that penetrates to regular people and mothers being separatesed from their children. that could be problematic, too. not having an answer to those questions is not going to last for long in terms of whether or not the administration is going to get a public blowback for just looking like they just simply don't care. >> if i can just add quickly that that will not deter this president and the people around him from pushing aggressively on hard core immigration policies. that's what brought him to the presidency and they're going to continue to do that. >> to your point about the secretary going to see the republicans. we know this resolution will pass. we also know as of now there seems to be no prayer that you can override the president's veto. so the first veto of the presidency will come on this national border national emergency issue although it could be as many as ten republicans, your math in this

ballpark? >> i have a list in the notebook that's filled up and it's nasty. at least ten to 12 that are in that realm. now, are they all going to vote against the president? probably not. so, you know, eight to ten would be the over under. >> a veto wouldn't be bad from the president on this issue. from a political perspective, the first veto i issued was on this issue because i feel so strongly about it. that's not a bad argument to be making ahead of 2020. frankly, it's not a bad thing in the senate these days and to show a little bit of force against the president and claim a bipartisan win so it's good for everyone in a way. >> a quick break for us. up next, new cnn reporting that the president personally intervened and overruled his staff to get his daughter a security clearance. that's sparking a new fight between the white house counsel and house democrats.

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house and that continues to be the policy of the white house. we're also not going to get into comments and a back and forth over things that are currently dealing with the oversight. >> familiar line, meaning a familiar non-answer from the white house after a new report raises questions about the first family, their truthfulness and their potential to blackmail or coercion. the president's pressure to then white house chief of staff john kelly and don mcgahn to ignore the recommendation of security professionals and to give his daughter ivanka a security clearance. mcgahn told the president no. he from seeded to grant clearances to both his daughter and jared kushner anyway. we should know the president has the final authority on security clearances and this revelation guarante guarantees a fresh fight or an extended fight. house democrats want documents from kushner and ivanka's files and why they have to keep

national security away, and it falls outside of the scope of congressional oversight and the white house has no intention of handing them over. pamela brown, part of this reporting, joins the conversation. the president doesn't get involved in this stuff, and clearly he did get involved and he overruled the experts who made their recommendation and the chief of staff of the white house counsel said don't do this, sir, and he did it. >> that's right. for both his son-in-law jared kushner as we learned in the times last week and through kaitlan collins, it had to do with his daughter, senior adviser ivanka that he pressured don mcgahn and he gave the security clearance after concerns were raised by the white house personnel office and as you know the president does have the authority and most of the time these decisions are made by the personnel office and if there are concerns then they would go to white house counsel and the chief of staff, and what we are told is that the president had pressured them to

be the ones to grant the clearance because he didn't want to be viewed as painting the process in his family's favor, and once they made it clear that they weren't going to be the ones putting their names on the line giving her the clearance, that is when he finally did it. now we should note, john, that it is feasible ivanka trump did not know about this. as you recall, three weeks ago to abc she said her father doesn't intervene at all. obviously according to our reporting that's not true, but it's feasible she didn't know. we spoke to someone close to her that said she didn't seek outside counsel because no red flags were raised and typically with security clearances, you are told you have the clearance or you didn't get it. so that is a possibility, but what it doesn't explain is the president denying repeatedly that he ever intervened and even saying he didn't know if he had the authority to do so to the times a few weeks ago. >> right. to the point of the abc interview, let's listen to it again and we'll talk. >> the president had no

involveme involvement pertaining to my clearance and my husband's clearance. there are literally close to a million people in the federal government who are in the pipeline to get their permanent clearance and are in temporary status. >> so no special treatment? >> no. >> okay. so let's be careful and let's be fair. based on the reporting it's feasible that she did not know. so then her father exposed her to think to say things in public that are not true. what's in the files? what's in the files? because if the president decides to do this he could have said okay, i read the files. i get it. i respect the professionals. jared and ivanka are important to me. i'm approving this. i'll tell ethics officials to keep an eye on them and be public about it and be transparent about it and we're not -- and the president plays dumb and says i don't know about

this. and now jared and ivanka and the president does it. why? >> he thought he would look bad if people knew that he did it. he was sensitive to that when he told mcgahn and kelly to grant the clearances and he was sensitive to it when he told the new york times that he didn't do what he actually ended up doing and he understands the contours of what's happening here and a bit of context -- >> lying about it is a better choice? >> yeah. >> leading up to this, the reason we kind of got to this point was because of the rob porter scandal which forced the white house into this come to jesus moment about the clearance process, and john kelly at that time was under fire for how he dealt with security clearance and he tried to reform aspects of the process and by the time it was time for the president to weigh in on ivanka trump's clearance. kelly didn't want his hands in that fire, and i think that just shows how high the stakes were for people of the white house. they were no longer willing to be burned by a situation that was already a mess.

it had been a mess for a long time, but the president and according to pam and kaitlan's great reporting believed that his daughter and his son-in-law were going to leave the white house. he thought maybe it wouldn't matter. >> sorry. >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say what you were saying, based on our reporting it didn't appear that the president understood the significance of granting someone a security clearance after concerns are raised because as you pointed out, he was tell officials it's no big deal, grant them the security clearance and they'll probably go back to new york this summer, sort of downplaying and the contradiction he told the times he didn't know he had the authority and this was back then when he said look, i have the authority and i'll leave it to kelly. >> yeah. i'm sorry about the learning curve part of it. for the first few months, i've never been in politics and i was willing to give grace on the learning curve part of it and you mentioned the come to jesus moment about rob porter. now there is a come to congress moment, elija cummings, says the

white house appears to be arguing that the white house has no authority to examine the executive branch. that impact our national security and there is a key difference between a president who exercises his authority under the constitution and a president who overrules career experts and top advisors to benefit his family members and conceals this actions from the american people. >> it's an impeachment debate. the entire storyline tells me that democratic leaders will have a lot of rope to stave off an impeachment debate that they want to have, and the one we're talking about now. there are three or four others that have been reported on in recent weeks. there's a lot of pressure on the left to start using the "i" word, right? it gives democrats more time to build potentially a case? >> the question is how long can the white house legally stave this off and they're going to get into executive privilege type of arguments, i assume and

you could end up in the courts. we went through this 12 years ago when democrats took over and henry waxman and the oversight committee wanted to get into karl rove's personal e-mails and they went back and forth and it took months and months and months and well into 2008 to resolve so that's going to be their play and the white house play is to delay, delay, delay. >> and to be fighting over the letter of the law. not the intent of the law, but the four corners of the law. that's a very -- it's a very strict argument and it's going to be very tricky for them, but that's what they're trying to do, not just this, but on virtually everything else that the congress wants to have oversight on. they're saying they have the full authority, which is true, but to what end? >> house democrats divided over how to take action against one of their own. at fidelity, we make sure you have a clear plan to cover the essentials in retirement, as well as all the things you want to do. because when you're ready for what comes next, the only direction is forward.

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click, call or visit a store today. speaker nancy pelosi insisting today the media is trying to stir infighting among house democrats and that resolution trying to put one new member in the harsh spotlight. the speaker says it's no big deal. the debate and the divide is hardly a media creation. at issue plans for a vote denouncing anti-semitism. the vote was delayed to add language that also chastises anti-muslim bias. democratic leaders aren't sure when it will come to a vote if it will this week, tomorrow,

butwell see. the language about anti-muslim violence was added at the insistence of progressives who field that ilhan omar is held to a different standard and it's proof of the internal democratic unease that the speaker suggests doesn't exist or is being hyped. >> we also want to make sure that we don't allow republicans and others to try to divide us in the caucus. representative omar is under a microscope in a way that many republicans have been able to say things and get away with them that are also anti-semitic and they haven't necessarily been called to the mat. we've already passed a resolution around anti-semitism, you know. i'm not sure that we need to continue to do this every single time. >> the complaint omar is being treated unfairly come mostly from younger progressives and some see a double standard and others see the stifling of a criticism of israel. they complained about israel's

approximate policies and omar making anti-semitic statements after promising to choose her words carefully and the speaker trying to say there's nothing to see here. these are not the drones you're looking for, but clearly, this has caused a stir inside the caucus. >> yeah. my colleagues, mark and rachel bay were outside that caucus this morning in the report that just went online and they described it as a full-scale brawl. this is not something that we are creating. they are fighting internally about this, and part of it is generational and part of it is ideological and it has now grown into hakeem jefferies at a press conference afterwards said he wants the resolution to condemn anti-semitism, racism, islamophobia and homophobia and the rise in hate since trump took office. that's a lot. that's a lot. >> so the question is what's your purpose?

in the sense that -- >> yeah. >> the resolution was drafted even though it doesn't name congresswoman omar and it's in direct response to what she said. you can criticize foreign policy and netanyahu and don't keep saying things and don't just say things that are hurtful to jews. let's go through some of the history. first one is well before she became a member of congress and this was when she was involved in minnesota. israel has hypnotized the world and let allah awaken the people and help them see the evilings of israel. >> it's all about the benjamins baby. i want to talk about political influence who say it's okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country. i should not be expected to have allegiance, pledge support to a foreign country to serve my country in congress or serve on a committee. the duel loyalty thing is offensive because of years and years and years and the history and what the democratic

colleagues have said, maybe you don't understand the history. please talk us to and they have reached the end of their rope saying we keep saying let's try to work things out and you keep saying things that are hurtful. >> and also stop tweeting. if you have a nuance position on the issue of the influence of, you know, whatever, lobbying israel and lobbying in congress, don't tweet 280 characters about it because it can easily be taken out of context if that's what you're saying and the frustration among some democrats is that even if you have a point on some of this stuff, the way that she has been saying it almost cavalierly just sending out these tweets that are being -- that are being interpreted by many people on the left and the right is offensive to jewish people is not the way to do it and she's created in a lot of ways a sort of unforced error for democrats. they had to deal with this resolution that this is not how they wanted to start out. i mean, nancy pelosi has just

come out of winning a debate with trump over the wall and now there's this. they are fighting amongst themselves over anti-semitism. >> you might as well, if you're the older members of democratic members of congress you might as well tell the younger members to stop breathing, right? they live on social media and it really does, my colleagues wrote a story about how this debate over this resolution underscores the generational divide within the democratic party and the older members versus the younger members and it also underscores how democrats handle this so differently from the way republicans hand them and we all know how often and for how many years king's racist remarks were swept aside and ignored who were much better at nothing to see here, let's move on. democrats kind of angst over all of this and it's playing out and it's an important debate, but it's also one the democrats don't have a good way of sort of getting beyond.

they get sort of trapped. >> our sunlen serfaty said in the internal meeting referenced on the internal issues and not to question each other's patriotism or their loyalty to our country. again, you have this generational thing, and we saw the republicans go through this and this is why john boehner left and paul ryan, and managing the majority is hard especially in this age. >> and this internal tension has consequences to abby's point to unforced errors. the last time it ended up derailing a yemen vote that could have a real effect on president trump's foreign policy, a public rebuke over how to handle it. it's not just internal caucus tension. it's also affecting bills on the floor. >> they're right about steve king. they are right that republicans have resisted and resisted and resisted. >> they have ignored a lot of things the president has said. >> a blatant racism in his

comment, but it is impossible to have a leg to stand on on those issues if you can't manage your own caucus. i think that's the problem for democrats is that it's going to be very difficult for them to condemn those things that they can't really deal with their own people. >> and they have an agenda that they ran on last fall about protecting those with pre-existing conditions and infrastructure and lowering drug prices. hr-1 is always the most important bill and it's supposed to be on the floor on friday about ethics reform and protecting ballot access, and it's just not getting any oxygen. >> yeah. there were 13 questions at the press conference after the caucus meeting. one dealt with their bill, hr-1 and everything else went through the other issues. >> you know when this will get problematic is when the 2020 presidential candidate, and it's happening. >> yes. >> stay in the majority. it's hard. that's a bipartisan reality.

>> yeah. >> lawmakers get a fourth day to question michael cohen about what he might know about the president and his behavior. hi i'm joan lunden. today's senior living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. don't you get the one of those travel sites? they tell you that, but when you book at hilton.com, you get the price match guarantee. so if you find your room at a lower rate, hilton is like... we're gonna match that rate and give you an extra 25% off. what would travel sites do if you found a better price? that's not my problem, it's your problem. get outta here! whoa, i really felt that performance. it's just acting, i'm really good at it.

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pg&e wants you to plan ahead by mapping out escape routes and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. for more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge.com/safety. topping our political radar today, michael cohen back on capitol hill for his fourth and final day of testimony before congress and his appearance before the house intelligence committee comes after two closed-door sessions last week and we all remember the highly publicized public hearing last wednesday. today was supposed to be the day the president's former attorney began a three-year prison sentence and that has been pushed back to may 6th. analysts say new satellite

images say north korea is rebuilding a long-range missile testing facility and may have begun that work just before, during or right after the summit with the president last week. the launch site in question had been dormant since august. the south korean lawmaker says her country's intelligence service confirms new activity in the location. no comment yet from the cia. >> an outspoken new democrat in congress ready to lead the impeachment charge with president trump even though most in her party think that's premature. talib has dropped it before, most famously with profanity. here's what she said this morning. >> later on this month i will be joining folks and advocates across the country to file the impeachment -- resolution, i'm sorry, to start the impeachment proceedings. >> up next, hillary clinton's latest 2020 wrinkle.

first, though, a new presidential slogan for the new colorado governor john hickenlooper. >> it's hitch hopper in dutch. >> that's good. you should change it to that just for the campaign. hedgehopper. >> i might try that. hedgehopper 2020. ♪ ♪ no matter when you retire, ensure you still have income every month of your retirement, guaranteed. see how lincoln can help.

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balanceus.org i'm not running, but i'm going to keep working and speaking and standing up for what i believe. >> i am not running does not mean i am definitely not running. that important clarification today from a close ally of hillary clinton. the 2016 democratic nominee was taken aback, it seems, from what you just saw. her i'm not running comment to a local tv statement was interpreted as her official bowing out of the 2020 contest.

they were in contact with her today. they say she wasn't trying to be emphatic and closed the door on running when she spoke to a local reporter yesterday and she was surprised by how definitively it played. the reporter says she is extremely unlikely to run, and she has told her team she is at least waiting to see the mueller report. >> the definition of the word "is." >> ouch. ouch. [ laughter ] >> i remember when her team was aggravated that bernie sanders was able to launch a second campaign with much fanfare even though she beat him handily. there is a bruised ego element here? >> bruised ego. >> the important part of the whole thing is that she doesn't like the idea that other people, joe biden, john kerry, bernie sanders, these men who are older in her age group and in her era

of politics are being welcomed into the democratic field and she's not, but i mean, she actually ran all of the way to the end in 2016 and didn't win and i think that's what democrats are saying is that you've had your chance to go all of the way through the process and it didn't work out. let's leave the field open to other people. >> it seems like a lifetime ago your colleague mark preston and i were senate reporters for roll call in her first term in the senate and we used to ask her almost every week, are you running for senate and she's feigning such anger. now there's anger at not being asked. that makes you irrelevant. >> it's a legitimate question. she was the nominee. she won the popular vote and a legitimate question for other democrats to think do you want a rematch? are you going to go? the president tweeted yesterday and he put the crooked in

parenthesis, you can read that as you wish, awe shucks. does that mean i won't get to run against her again? she will be sorely missed. >> she responded, why are you so obsessed with me? they can take this -- they can keep this going on twitter and they don't need to do it in an election. >> i'm not sure anybody wants that except for trump, do you know what that means? this is exactly when trump wants. he wants to run in 2020 against hillary clinton, and he might, actually. he might try to pin everybody to hillary clinton in some ways and pin everybody to bernie sanders and socialism in other ways, but it would be a very easy thing for him to make her a very recognizable enemy and so this sort of back and forth might seem fun, but for a lot of democrats they're looking at it and thinking we have got to move on. >> for her it's a question of legacy, whether or not it's highly unlikely that she would, but she doesn't want it to be left that, you know, that she

couldn't run or that -- or that it would be impossible for her to run because of how things ended. i mean, she wants there to be a sort of better resolution to that and wants to be wanted. >> she is wanted. that's the thing. left and right we're hearing about the 2020 candidates who are sitting down with her and asking for her advice. it's the question, accepting the elder statesman and elder stateswoman role. it's hard. >> it's hard and the clintons, whatever you think of them are competitive people. >> you're in the arena and you're competitive. it's hard. >> up next, america's trade deficit hits a 10-year high and the president promised to fix it. ♪

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or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio®. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. entyvio®. relief and remission within reach. >> numbers don't lie and the president will have to take it up with his own commerce department. me thinks these figures are fake. the commerce department says the u.s. trade deficit ballooned to $621 billion last year and that the shortfall with china reached an all-time high. our chief business correspondent christine romans takes a closer look. >> john, the president's entire trade policy is predicated on his belief that trade deficits represent failure. well just in, the u.s. trade deficit last year was the worst in a decade. $621 billion and the overall deficit in goods was the worst in america's 243-year history. the deficit with china also the

worst on record. trump detests trade deficits. he sees them as a loss of money from the u.s. to her trading partners, yet that number he detests in his two years in office the trade deficit has swelled to well over $100 million and he's called himself tariff man, but those tariffs brought retaliatory tariffs that made u.s. exports more expensive. another uncomfortable number for the white house, the budget deficit soared 77% in the first four months of the year to $310 billion. the deficit ballooned as the government spent way more on the military, veterans affairs and interest on the debt and tax cuts mean the treasury is taking in less money. tax revenue down 1.5% over the last 12 months and white house economic adviser larry kudlow down you on played those numbers. >> we are making an investment in merge's future. it's already beginning to pay off and if that means we incur some additional debt in this short run so be it.

>> the white house view is huge corporate tax cuts with super charged economic growth and enough to rein in the deficit, but that hasn't happened. economic growth came just after the president's 3% official goal and well before the 4% or 5% goal he often promised. the congressional budget office says it will reach $900 billion this year and aging population will drive up social security costs sharply in coming years. within a decade, interest payments on the national debt will be larger than discretionary spending. john? >> christine romans, thanks for crunching the numbers. i remember a campaign in which donald trump said stupid people hired by other presidents were responsible for the trade policies and he was going to make it all go away and it would be easy. that stupid people were running the government and balancing the budget and getting rid of the budget deficit would be easy. we're two years in. >> i should start by saying tread deficits are not inherently bad. the president has made them bad. they are not inherently bad.

the president's argument here is that the short-term pain, and the deficit's going up because of retaliatory tariffs are in the interest of getting the players to the table. china is at the table and will they get a deal is the major question here. i've heard a lot of skepticism that if there is a deal it will be one that resolves the issues that the president sought out to resolve, but he may be on to something in the sense that if he is able to get a reduction in tariffs before he put into place his tariff and then the future might be a better scenario, but i think for now, the pain is being felt by american consumers and it's being felt by american farmers and i think unless he gets a deal it could be felt for some time to come. >> one of the things donald trump does is he declares victory and he tries to create the reality he wishes to be. take nafta, the replacement for nafta and he often goes around

saying he fixed it. they negotiated the trade deal and it is not having any impact at this point and it hasn't been ratified by congress or anybody else. so he does these things that he -- and part of the reason the numbers are where they are is because the things that he says that happened haven't actually really happened. >> other big numbers, 4% unemployment and the stock market and the hiccups are doing quite well and if you're trying to make the case against the president and his re-election campaign and can you talk about the deficit or today and that the president promised would s y stay open. can you say that when it is on his side? >> he is the only one i've heard that seized on that on the gm factory closing, and for this to work against him, the democrats have to use it and i haven't really seen them do that yet. >> the campaign is just starting and we'll watch it all play out. thanks for watching us on

"inside politics." "brianna keilar" starts right now. have a good day. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ooum brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. under way right now, did ivanka trump outright lie? she says her dad did not push for her to get a security clearance. we now know he did despite warnings. plus, she's at the center of some of the president's most controversial moves, and today homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen gets an earful on capitol hill. check and the balancing act. what the president was reportedly doing when he signed those infamous checks for michael cohen, and the oversight fight is about to escalate. one democratic congresswoman says it is time for impeachment proceedings to